2 Bills and Comments by Officials Stir Debate Over Same-Sex Unions

Demonstrators gathered last week outside the Colorado Statehouse to show their support of a civil unions bill, which has been gaining support as it makes its way through House committees.Credit
Rick Wilking/Reuters

WASHINGTON — A day after his vice president’s expansive comments all but endorsing same-sex marriage, President Obama faced renewed pressure on Monday to complete his “evolving” on the issue and to take a clear stand despite the unpredictable consequences for his re-election bid.

The push on the issue extended to other administration officials even as White House aides insisted that the remarks of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on a Sunday television talk show were no different from what Mr. Obama has said in the past.

Mr. Obama’s education secretary, Arne Duncan, who appeared Monday on a morning television show, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” to promote the administration effort to get Congress to hold down interest rates on federal loans to college students, was asked whether he personally supported same-sex marriage. “Yes, I do,” Mr. Duncan said.

In a statement applauding Mr. Duncan, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, Joe Solmonese, said, “There’s no doubt in my mind that the president shares these values, and that’s why it’s time for him to speak out in favor of marriage equality as well.”

The political considerations for the White House and the Obama re-election campaign are complicated, and advisers are on both sides of the issue. But Mr. Obama’s senior strategists like David Axelrod and David Plouffe, confronting the prospect of a close election, are loath to raise a subject that could cost votes in swing states like Virginia, North Carolina and Colorado, say Democrats familiar with their thinking.

Yet Mr. Obama risks alienating gay Americans who have been among his strongest supporters and biggest donors, and same-sex marriage is strongly supported among many of the young and college-educated voters whom the campaign courts. But it is opposed by socially conservative blacks, particularly politically influential ministers, whose strong turnout Mr. Obama needs.

At the same time, some Democrats say that Mr. Obama, by continuing to straddle an issue that many supporters and gay activists believe he privately favors, risks looking politically calculating, even cynical.

In the wake of Mr. Biden’s remarks, and then Mr. Duncan’s, Mr. Obama’s advisers adamantly rebutted suggestions from some reporters and bloggers that those comments were part of a strategy to signal the administration’s support for same-sex marriage without Mr. Obama having to declare it. Advisers to both the president and vice president said Mr. Biden was speaking for himself, and unscripted.

The heightened focus on gay rights issues in Washington came as voters in North Carolina prepared to vote on Tuesday on a proposed amendment to the state’s Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, and as Colorado advocates of civil unions sought to push a measure recognizing such unions through the State Legislature before a Wednesday deadline. Both states figure prominently in Mr. Obama’s re-election calculation.

The flare of attention to the issue in the wake of Mr. Biden’s remarks — on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press,” he said he was “absolutely comfortable” with same-sex marriages and heartened by their growing acceptance around the country — was not the first time that events have forced the White House to explain why Mr. Obama does not take a clear position. But the passage of time and the approach of the election plainly are making it more difficult, as a grilling Monday of Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, showed.

“What the vice president said yesterday was to make the same point that the president has made previously, that committed and loving same-sex couples deserve the same rights and protections enjoyed by all Americans, and that we oppose any effort to roll back those rights,” Mr. Carney said.

“I think the president is the right person to describe his own personal views,” Mr. Carney added. “He, as you know, said that his views on this were evolving, and I don’t have an update for you on that.”

Mr. Axelrod, in a conference call with reporters from the Chicago campaign headquarters, turned the issue around to focus on Mr. Obama’s likely Republican rival, Mitt Romney.

Mr. Axelrod said “there couldn’t be a starker contrast” between Mr. Obama, who repealed the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law for gay, lesbian and bisexual members of the military services and quit enforcing a federal law against same-sex marriages, calling it unconstitutional, and Mr. Romney, who has supported efforts to repeal state laws for same-sex unions and to establish a federal constitutional amendment against them.

In North Carolina, polls indicated that the proposed state amendment banning same-sex marriage would be approved on Tuesday. While North Carolina has a law against same-sex marriage, Republican lawmakers said they worried that without an amendment, the law was in danger of being struck down by the courts.

The issue divides nearly all demographic groups, with ministers, lawyers, business executives, as well as black and white voters falling on both sides of the debate. With age one of the most predictable indicators of a voter’s stance, supporters of a ban are rallying older voters who tend to oppose same-sex marriage while opponents are mobilizing younger people.

Christopher Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, said of the issue, “I think the less it’s talked about in a state like North Carolina, the better it is for Obama.”

In contrast, in Colorado supporters of a civil unions bill expressed hope on Monday that it would pass before the Legislature adjourns on Wednesday, given the support of Republican lawmakers who broke party ranks to join Democratic proponents. Supporters say they have the votes to send the legislation to Gov. John W. Hickenlooper, a Democrat, who has said he would sign it.

“If you asked me at the beginning of the session whether I thought we’d be this far, I’d probably say no,” said Representative Mark Ferrandino, Democrat of Denver, one of four openly gay state legislators here and sponsor of the bill. “I’m really excited about where we are. We’re not at the end yet, but we’re much closer than we’ve ever been.”

The chance remained that the bill would not reach the final committee in time, or that Republican leaders would not bring the bill to the House floor — effectively killing it. The House speaker, Frank McNulty, a Republican, stopped short of saying the measure would not come to the House floor, but added, “For me, this bill lays the foundation to a challenge against marriage and that is not a place I am willing to go.”

But in a sign of changing public attitudes reflected elsewhere, a new conservative group called Coloradans for Freedom emerged to support civil union legislation, and at the state Republican convention last month, nearly half the delegates backed a resolution supporting civil unions.

Dan Frosch contributed reporting from Denver, and Campbell Robertson from New Orleans.

A version of this article appears in print on May 8, 2012, on page A17 of the New York edition with the headline: 2 Bills and Comments By Officials Stir Debate Over Same-Sex Unions. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe